Plot synopsis

In December 1931, Stalin received in the Kremlin the German writer Emil Ludwig, the author of biographies of outstanding personalities from Bismarck to Wagner. The writer asked the question: "Do you admit a parallel between yourself and Peter the Great, do you consider yourself to be the successor of Peter's work?" Stalin answered: "In no way. I am a disciple of Lenin. As for Lenin and Peter the Great, the latter was a drop in the ocean, but Lenin was an entire ocean."
Soon Stalin showed interest in the question of the role of personality in history. More precisely, in certain personalities. The first in this series is Ivan the Terrible. In 1937, during a conversation with the writer Alexei Tolstoy, Stalin said: "The topic of Ivan the Terrible should be raised to the state level. Less attention should be paid to Ivan the Terrible's love for women. At the same time, it is necessary to give a correct political assessment of the oprichnina as a means of fighting and eliminating the opposition. The emergence of such a phenomenon of the Soviet era as the cult of Stalin's personality was preceded by certain reasons.
Nikolai Svanidze talks about the historical situation against which the deification of the figure of the leader of the USSR began: famine, collectivization, the sale of national values ​​​​abroad, the fight against real and fictitious dissenters.

Commentaries

Сценарии телесериала «Исторические хроники с Николаем Сванидзе», с 1913го по 1933 год. [Scénarios de la série télévisée « Chroniques historiques avec Nikolaï Svanidzé », de 1913 à 1933], Marina ZHUKOVA, Амфора, 2014

- Screenplay

Selected in the following festivals or events :

- Historical Chronicles with Nikolay Svanidze, (kinoglaz.fr), 2026

Photos, videos, texts

Joseph STALINE (Иосиф Виссарионович СТАЛИН) 1878-1953